It would be hard to find a tougher environment than LSU for softball freshman shortstop Juliana Santos.As a Crohn’s disease patient, Santos is advised against excessive stress, unhealthy food and extreme heat.But Santos is living her first year away from home, her No. 20 Tigers are battling for Southeastern Conference position, final exams are looming and temperatures around Louisiana are steadily rising.”This is a bad place to live,” Santos said. “It’s hard to find a happy medium between everything, especially being on my own.”Many people aren’t exactly sure what Crohn’s disease is.Ana Gross, assistant softball trainer, admitted she had to do some research on the autoimmune disease when Santos committed to LSU.”It’s an inflammation of the colon and the small and large intestines,” Gross said. “There’s no way to prevent it, and it’s pretty much something she’ll have to maintain throughout her lifetime.”Santos spent a good chunk of her childhood in and out of hospitals. She took countless gastrointestinal tract X-rays — which involve swallowing barium — and in 2001 she had surgery to remove infected pieces of her intestinal tract.”I missed basically all of my sixth grade year, and still some of my closest friends think I was in Disneyland,” she said.Santos’s disease is in remission for the most part, but her surgery cannot prevent an occasional “flare up,” which Gross described as abdominal cramping — common for most stomach disorders.But none of this has managed to hamper Santos’ first year with LSU softball. She is batting .296 with four home runs and 25 RBI with just three regular season games remaining. She has started 44 of 45 games, missing her only start against Nicholls State. She entered that game against the Colonels in the seventh inning as a pinch hitter and coolly provided the game-tying RBI and the game-winning run.”She’s a fighter, and you can tell that when you look at her,” said LSU coach Yvette Girouard. “That’s why I love everything about her — she’s tough, and she doesn’t give in … That’s exactly what a coach wants.”Girouard said the team is prepared to hold her out of the lineup should she experience complications, but it hasn’t been necessary to this point.”It is exceptional that she’s gotten through this time pretty pain free and healthy,” Gross said. “If she was a little bit worse off, she might not be able to play … but it doesn’t seem to affect her softball in any way.”But the game-winning hits aren’t as easy as they look. Santos admits she’s “not thrilled about [her] life every day” but said her parents and her faith have helped her through.”I’ve broken down a few times with my disease … I’ve let it win me over,” she said. “But my parents have helped me through that mental block. Everything happens for a reason — God gave me this for a reason.”Perhaps that reason is to help those who share her affliction.Santos plans to double major in kinesiology and biological sciences with a hope of one day working on Crohn’s disease.”If I want to go the sports route, I can. But there’s something in me telling me that I need to help people like me,” she said.At the very least, she hopes to reduce the strain on people with medical issues by helping develop an alternative to barium — the radioactive agent patients must ingest before taking gastrointestinal X-rays.”It’s the grossest thing ever invented, and I’ve had to drink that like 12 times,” Santos said. “I’d love to help fund or help invent or create something like barium that tastes good and that kids can handle.”And with all that in mind, maybe LSU isn’t such a tough place after all.”I can’t be mad. I can’t take this away — I’m going to have it the rest of my life,” she said. “Everyone here has been really understanding. My teammates are always around to make sure I’m OK. It’s just a really good atmosphere to be in.”——Contact David Helman at [email protected]